The Meaning of Action in Learning and Teaching

Abstract

Action is a highly theorised aspect of social life. Nonetheless, it remains a relatively neglected source of data within educational research. This article attempts to highlight the signi cance of the analysis of organised action within educational research. It describes and demonstrates an analytical approach to action applicable to the classroom developed from approaches to the analysis of bodily communication and action in drama education and from new approaches to rhetoric. These approaches draw on social semiotic theories of making meaning in order to describe the complex relationship between the semiotics of social action and the situated experience of learning in the classroom. This article describes how action realises meanings and shapes classroom interaction through the application of the schema to video data from a science lesson on energy with Year 9 pupils (14 years old). Finally, it draws attention to the research and pedagogical implications of a focus on action in the science classroom and in education more generally.

“Vygotsky’s Neglected Legacy”: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

“…Judgment calls were necessary, because CHAT has strong family resemblances and yet is distinct from situated cognition, distributed cognition, legitimate peripheral participation, actor-network, and practice theories (see Barab, Evans, & Baek, 2004;Cole, Engeström, & Vasquez, 1997). Similarly, by and large not considered here were the growing corpus of important projects that find much sympathy with CHAT but (a) emphasize less the historical determinations of practical labor and historical conditions of culture, cognition, and learning and (b) adhere more to a discursive, semiotic, or multimodal perspective drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin or Michael K. Halliday (e.g., Franks & Jewitt, 2001;Kress, Jewitt, Ogborn, & Tsatsarelis, 2001; D. R. Russell, 1997;Wells, 1999Wells, , 2002. This procedure left us with about 350 texts, not all of which are referenced here to eliminate overlaps.…”

Augmentation of information in educational objects: Effectiveness of arrows and pictures as information for actions in instructional objects

“…It further posits that in the process of interpretation people choose from a number of possible alternatives when interpreting a sign (Halliday, 1978;Hodge & Kress, 1988). Since every sign including written text and images used in a communication context can inform the reader about something, interpreting information involves a decision concerning what is the most appropriate meaning or expression in a particular context (Franks & Jewitt, 2001;van Leuween, 2006). In short, "meaning arises as a consequence of choice and that meaning is multiple" (Jewitt, Kress, Ogborn, & Tsatsarelis, 2001;p.…”

Embodying Teaching: A Body Pedagogic Study of a Teacher’s Movement Rhythm in the ‘Sloyd’ Classroom

“…Inspired by an increasing interest in the embodied dimensions of learning and education (Hockey and Allen-Collinson 2007;Shilling 2007Shilling , 2018 and how 'movement' has recently been utilised as an analytical object both to investigate learning in school (Larsson and Quennerstedt 2012;Almquist and Quennerstedt 2015;Franks and Jewitt 2001) and to reconsider fieldwork practice (Pink 2011;Pierre and Macleod 2010), we consider that teaching and learning experiences and outcomes are directly related to the different characteristics of movement behaviour (e.g., Sheets-Johnstone 2011;Johnson 2007;Shilling 2008). In order to further illuminate movement in relation to body pedagogics and classroom research, in this article movement behaviour specifically centres on a teacher's walk through the classroom.…”

“…A number of micro ethnographic studies have also examined how posture and conversational rhythm shift between different classroom contexts (Mehan 1998). The growing research interest in body pedagogics (e.g., Andersson and Maivorsdotter 2016) and didactical research on embodiment (e.g., Larsson and Quennerstedt 2012;Pierre and Macleod 2010;Almquist and Quennerstedt 2015;Franks and Jewitt 2001;Håkansson and Ö stman forthcoming) suggests a need to further explain and explore movement and embodied rhythm in the context of classroom activity. This would facilitate the acquisition of knowledge about the environment of embodied action and how the pace and space of knowledge acquisition can best be conducted.…”

“…In this respect, important results have been obtained against the background of Merleau-Pontian informed research and studies highlighting a wider temporal and cultural understanding of human development in craft professions. A rhythm approach to classroom activity, undertaken by following a sloyd teacher's walk using an action camera mounted to the person's chest, further develops important aspects of classroom research, such as pacing (Bernstein), spatial and temporal arrangements (Franks and Jewitt 2001;Pierre and Macleod 2010) and teacher-pupil interactions (Mehan 1998;Charalampous and Kokkinos 2013). In this context, the Swedish school subject of sloyd constitutes a rich case for the further development of methods and analyses that foreground the body and its relationships to material, technical and social aspects of classroom teaching.…”